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  • From: EarthNSky <erthnsky AT bellsouth.net>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Farm Update
  • Date: Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:49:42 -0400



Lynn Wigglesworth wrote:
I can't find a job. I have a Master of Library Science but the
library won't even interview me anymore (I've applied for 4 different
positions in the past 2-3 years); they tell me that I'm
over-qualified for an entry-level job (I think it's that I have a
better degree from a better school than the library director...she
thinks I'm after her job), <snip>

But I worry less about that all the time (senility maybe?). I'm
ridiculously satisfied with what I have.

Lynn Wigglesworth Tioga Co. PA

I was ridiculously satisfied with my life, too, even though we are in
debt and the house is falling apart in some ways. Then, out of the
blue, a job offer came my way. As you know, I start work on Monday, but
I am bittersweet about it because it means I must leave my current
lifestyle behind.
I'm five years younger than you, but we are of the same generation. We
both went to school prior to "The Information Age". I don't know when
you got your Master's Degree-if it was immediately after your Bachelor's
or later, but did you think about the outlook for those types of jobs
before you got your Masters?
I don't mean to sound critical. I am in the same boat. When I decided
Medicine wasn't for me, in 1983, I thought I'd be okay with just a
chemistry degree. I was very 'green', as we say today, and I dreamed of
working as an environmental chemist. Because I married and started a
family quickly, I never worked as a chemist right after school. I did
not get my first chemistry related job until 12 years later, so I
started my "career" late, in my mid-thirties. It hasn't been contiguous
employment, either. I felt like a dinosaur most of the time, even on
the job, because Science, by it's very definition, changes. We are
always gaining more knowledge, adding to, replacing old assumptions,
refining hypotheses. When I went to school, there were 103 elements
on the Periodic Table and maybe 2 experimental ones that I remember-but
they were not on the table. Now, there are 118+ elements, 115 of which
have names and places on the table, a table has been rearranged and
'simplified'...no longer are there subgroups, just numbered groups. I
took a facebook quiz the other day and almost missed one because I was
'thrown off' by Group 17. You see, on my personal, trusty Periodic
Table, Group 17 is known as Group VII A, which in my opinion, is a more
descriptive name since the 7 signifies the number of valence electrons.
I guess someone wanted to simplify the nomenclature and just number the
groups/columns across from left to right.
Adhesives are based on polymers. When I was in school, polymer
chemistry was handled as a chapter in my Organic book and pretty much
only dealt with natural polymers and the simplest synthetics like rayon,
neoprene, PTFE (Teflon), Nomex, etc. It was only base knowledge at that
time, or at least that was all that was covered in my undergraduate
textbook. Today, you can actually obtain degrees in polymer science,
and it, like environmental chemistry, is a specialty. That really
handicaps someone like me who is twice the age of recent grads to begin
with. I found myself not just working, but studying and teaching myself
to think creatively about the physical arrangement of polymers and what
characteristics they would have based on that arrangement. That's it in
a nutshell, but the possibilities are endless and I often feel too old
to think about it anymore. I simply don't retain knowledge the way I
did when I was younger. It sucks.
My point is, Lynn, who knew that it would be like this? I believed that
chemistry would change and grow, of course, but not to the extent that
it has. Biology and the Natural Sciences might have seen fewer changes.
Physics and the Engineering fields seems to change with the wind.
Karen, if you are reading this, I'd be interested in your thoughts on this.
I honestly thought, when I chose my major, that I was making the best
choice, choosing a field that would grow and provide lots of
opportunity. I never envisioned that it would grow and leave me behind.
Maybe Lynn can relate to that or maybe you have a similar but opposite
problem. I don't know. I feel for you, though.

Bev
--
Sleep well tonight, for somewhere in the ocean's depths, MY son is
protecting your freedom on the USS Key West, currently deployed
somewhere in the Pacific and/or Indian Ocean. Go Navy!
EarthNSky Farm, NW Georgia, USA





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